This invention relates to an improved seat including an automatically adjustable display screen assembly. The invention is most applicable to aircraft seats, but may also have utility in other passenger vehicles, such as RVs, mini-vans, and the like.
Typical seats of the prior art, as commonly found in airplanes for example, include an adjustable seat back which is movable between an upright position and a reclined position. These seats are generally closely spaced, and arranged in any number of rows and columns depending upon the particular flight class and the size of the aircraft. To further the enjoyment of the flight, a display screen is sometimes located on the back side of the seat back to be viewed by a viewer in an identical seat located behind the screen. The display screen may be used for movies, video games, or provide other services such as flight information or in-flight telephone service.
Since the seat in front of the viewer is relatively closely spaced to the viewer, the screen becomes difficult and awkward to view when the front passenger moves his seat. While some display screens provide for a limited range of manual adjustment, others do not. For those screens which do not adjust, the display screen is generally useless to the viewer when the front passenger moves his seat to a fully reclined position. In the case of manually adjustable screens, many viewers quickly become frustrated with a front passenger who frequently moves his seat between the upright and reclined position.
The present invention overcomes these and other problems of the prior art by providing a seat which includes an automatically adjustable display screen assembly. The invention responds automatically to the movement of the seat to pivot the display screen and maintain the display screen at a predetermined viewing angle relative to the viewer in the back seat.